It's sometimes easy to forget that WWDC 2018 is – well, should – be about the developers, especially if you are someone who tunes into the keynote to see what's going on with iOS 12 and nothing else.
But celebrating developers is high on Apple's list and one of the ways it is doing this is with the inaugural Apple Design Award winners. This award showcases the best-looking games you can play on an Apple device, whether it be an iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.
Winners of this award aren't just given a fancy bit of plastic to put in a cabinet (given this is Apple, it's actually a one-off aluminum cube) but they are also slathered with a bevy of goodies, including a: 5K iMac Pro, 256GB iPhone X, 15-inch MacBook Pro, 512GB iPad Pro (complete with Apple Pencil), 4K Apple TV, Apple Watch Series 3 and some AirPods.
Winners this year include the beautiful-looking Florence, the beautiful-looking Alto’s Odyssey and, well, you get the idea.
The full list is below:
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Frost
Made by kunabi brother GmbH (from Vienna, Austria), Frost offers up a puzzle game that's in constant motion. Comprising 50 levels, the game is filled with some fantastic imagery and sounds to match.
Created by Snowman (from Toronto, Canada), Alto's Odyssey is a game set within the confines of a desert. It took three years to make and is the sequel to Alto's Adventure, marrying amazing imagery, immersive gameplay and endless exploration.
Florence, created by Annapurna Interactive, badges itself as "a story about love and life". It's this simplicity that makes it so great, that and the fact that it has been designed by the same person who designed the look of Monument Valley. Even though it uses subtle storytelling, Florence packs an emotional punch.
Playdead's INSIDE is made by the creators of Limbo and is full to the brim with superb artwork, gripping gameplay and intricate puzzles. It's a bizarre play but also one that's utterly rewarding.
Oddmar is an action-adventure platformer from Mobge Ltd, a games company from Denmark. It's a game that riffs off Norse mythology, following Oddmar a viking who is struggling to find a place for himself in society - until he's offered an interesting opportunity.
Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.
